The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), which thoroughly analysed the 2015 December floods which devastated Chennai and other neighbouring districts has concluded that a high level expert committee with powers to take decision on regulating and releasing water from upstream tanks/lakes could have saved the metropolis from the disaster.
This substantiates the apprehensions expressed by Chennai-based safety and security experts who felt that the delay in opening the gates of the city-based reservoirs resulted in the floods which ravaged the city for a fortnight in December 2015 causing death and destruction. Chennai was cut off from the remaining part of the country for almost two weeks following breakdown in telecommunication services and disruption in power transmission.
“A high level expert committee for Chennai city should be formed. This committee should be given adequate authority to take decisions on-site to appropriately regulate and release water from upstream lakes/tanks keeping in view hydrological and meteorological forecasts issued for the region. During heavy rainfall this committee should have a final say on releasing water from lakes/tanks./water bodies on the basis of reviewing the inflow forecasts,” said the NWDA report released to the media on Friday.
The NDMA also recommended the formation of exclusive Automatic Weather Station Network for Chennai.
“Chennai city should have its own network of Automatic Weather Stations (AWS) , say one station for every four sq km for effective monitoring of rainfall and issuing of warnings. These should be used in conjunction with satellite map animations, IMD warnings and flood forecasting software. It should address thunderstorm flooding (20 mm per hour to 120 mm per hour) rapid moving weather disturbances , heavy rains due to various factors etc,,” said one of the suggestions by the agency.
It also recommended that the Government should encourage the people to link their Government documents with Aadhaar and establishment of common service centres at multiple locations for ease of filing applications.
The agency while commending the rescue and relief measures undertaken by the Tamil Nadu Government, pointed out that Chennai city received 883 per cent more rainfall than the normal rainfall during the five days starting from December 1, 2015.
While the city receives 40.6 mm in a normal North East Monsoon during the fist five days of December, the year 2015 saw the city getting battered with 399 mm rainfall.
The neighbouring Kancheepuram district which receives 34. Mm rainfall during the period, received a record 467.2 mm rainfall, which was 1254 per cent more than normal rainfall.
“During November 2015, Chennai received 101.8 cm rainfall which is the highest recorded rainfall in a month since 1918,” said the
NDMA report.
